Let’s Talk About the Dodgers’ Triple Play!

Look, I had some questions about that Dodgers triple play from this weekend. Because Jonah Keri had the green circle on Gchat, I asked him. If you have a baseball nerd question, feel free to shoot us an e-mail at triangle@grantland.com. We read them, I swear!Hello, Jonah! Thank you for helping. I need to know if I will ever see a triple play like this again in my lifetime. I ask because I was not watching this game, so, oops.

Umpires are a scourge on our society determined to ruin the most perfect game on Earth. So yes, I’d say we see another play like this, possibly in the next week.

The Padres were not exactly pleased with the way this was handled. Is this a fair beef?

Absolutely. Dale Scott raised his arms in the air as if to signal “foul ball.” Every Padre (Chris Denorfia and Chase Headley on base, Jesus Guzman at bat, Kurt Bevacqua, wherever he is) stopped in his tracks, figuring it was a foul ball. Then Scott signaled fair. You could argue that no other team would possibly bunt with its cleanup man in the ninth inning, which is a deeper concern for the Padres than this one game. But Scott certainly did them no favors.

What is the most common triple play? This is definitely the least common, right? Do you have a favorite triple play?

Sharp grounder to third with the third baseman playing near the line and a slow runner is quite doable. A line drive or blooper that looks like it might fall in, especially if runners are already on the move, also works. Any triple play that swings a game is exciting. When the winning team goes on to win 1-0, that’s about as strong as it gets.

What’s harder: A triple or a triple play? Because someone once told me that a triple was the hardest thing to do in baseball. Actually, I have no idea if that was what he said. Anyway. I once repeated this at a baseball game, and was met with total shock, but I’ve stuck by it, mostly just to be stubborn.

Triple play by a wide margin. The Dodgers’ turn was the 688th in MLB history; I’m pretty sure Willie Wilson hit 688 triples in one season at some point in the ’80s.